Shown here is a panel we connected up the other day 
for testing, a Sharp 1280 x 480 pixel display. This panel is certainly novel with a 8:3 aspect ratio and looks very suitable for a range of signage and instrumentation applications – we are considering using it with our media players and providing it as a display for digital signage applications such as in retail and museums.
For this test it was connected to a Digital View ALR-1400 LCD interface controller but it can also be matched with other Digital View controllers.
Details are on our controller solution generator here, the model is Sharp LQ123K1LG03.
As a proof of concept for the use of the RS-232 capability on our LCD controllers we recently made a small joystick, slider and button control board for our SVX-1920 controller (see picture), this connects to the controller RS-232 port. For this test we programmed the board for:
- Picture in Picture (PiP): A single button press turns the PiP window on/off. The joystick moves the PiP window around and the slider adjusts the size of the PiP window. Another button selects different PiP modes.
- On-screen markers: A single button hotkeys through various on-screen markers.
- On-screen (OSD) menu: A single button turns the OSD menu on//off.
It works excellently, the PiP window size adjustment is very responsive and smooth using the slider and the position is easily and quickly adjusted with the joystick.
The idea behind this is to show a few of the ways that the RS-232 interface can be used to make a display much more than just a simple monitor by using some of the innovative features in Digital View controllers.
We will be putting this control board in a housing and also test with other other control presets for the buttons, slider and joystick. The SVX-1920 protocols for RS-232 are extensive so the range potential functions that this sort of interface board can be used with is considerable. Other Digital View controllers also support RS-232 so this capability is not limited to the SVX-1920.
Update: 
We added a housing as shown to make it easier to use the joystick for demonstration and testing.
